Semcon expands the partnership with fuel cell company Powercell with a view to upscale the company's production of fuel cells with automation and robots. Fuel cells powered by hydrogen produce electricity and heat with no emissions other than water.

Increasingly extensive electrification, primarily in the automotive sector, has resulted in a massive increase in interest in fuel cell technology. This project is part of Industry 4.0 for smarter factories. Powercell is able to streamline manufacturing, reduce costs and enhance quality thanks to an automated production environment.

"As part of this partnership, Semcon is supplying test concepts, production equipment, installation and commissioning for semi-automatic trial production of fuel cells. This is an incredibly exciting project with fantastic potential," says Thomas Lydhig, technical project manager at Semcon.

Semcon has performed virtual simulations, visualising the entire production process, before the robots are installed at Powercell in Gothenburg. The robots will switch to live production in early October, when they are installed at Powercell.

"We have worked with Semcon for a long time, and we consider this to be a natural choice of partner now that we are scaling up our production. Semcon has the broad expertise and experience that we need in automation and production development," says Per Wassén, CEO of Powercell.

Powercell develops and produces power cells and systems offering market-leading efficiency. These fuel cells are powered by hydrogen. They produce both electricity and heat and emit only water.

Semcon is an international technology company that develops products based on human needs and behaviours. We strengthen our customers' competitiveness by always starting from the end user, because the person who knows most about the user's needs creates the best products and the clearest benefits to humans. Semcon collaborates mainly with companies in the automotive, industry, energy and life science sectors. With more than 2,000 specialised employees, Semcon has the ability to take care of the entire product development cycle, from strategy and technology development to design and product information. Semcon was founded in Sweden in 1980 and has offices in over 30 locations in eight different countries. In 2017, the Group reported annual sales of SEK 1.8 billion. Read more on www.semcon.com